Creation – Macrocosm

08 Aug 2012

Sukumar Panchapakesan

Having understood the microcosm, it is important to understand the Macrocosm which is the cosmology or creation. The two basic principles for creation (similar to father and mother) are Brahman and Maya. Brahman is nothing other than the Athma from the total perspective. Maya represents the potential form of the entire universe from where the entire creation manifested. This is the same theory referred by Theory of Conservation of Matter. Thus Maya is the inert principle and Brahman is the conscious principle both of which are eternal (Anaadhi – permanent principle).

Athma or Brahman is called Sathyam and Maya is called Mithya which is dependent on Brahman for existence. Maya has three gunas – Satva, Rajas & Tamas. Satva guna represents the faculty of knowledge (Gnana Shakthi), Rajo guna represents the power of action (Kriya Shakthi) and Tamo guna represents the power of Inertia,(Dravya Shakthi) which suppresses the other powers. Whereas Brahman is nir guna and hence cannot do anything without the maya, the shakthi tatvam.

Brahman is Nirvikara – changeless but the Maya is Savikara – Changing leading to the creation. The creation evolved from Maya which is supported by the Brahman to play the respective role. Just as the presence of light facilitates performing various actions, mere presence of athman facilitates maya to evolve into the whole creation.

First part of creation is evolution of subtle five elements. Subtle bodies then evolve from the subtle five elements. Third stage is the evolution of the gross elements. The last stage is evolution of gross bodies.

From Maya evolves the sukshma akasha. Subtle space is also created. Space is not emptiness but it is a subtle material. The space being curved and expanding is the theory now mentioned by scientists implying that space is not emptiness. The property of the space is sound. Space cannot be seen, felt, smelled or tasted. This subtle sound of space is called as Omkara heard by the yogis.

Macrocosm

From the akasha evolved the Vayu – air. Air has the qualities of touch and sound. It can be felt and heard. From vayu came the Teja – Agni tatvam (Fire). Fire has the qualities of being seen, felt and heard. From Teja evolved the Aapaha – water. It has the additional property of taste. Finally the Pritivi Tatvam – Earth evolved from Water principle, which has the additional property of Smell.

The Maya is the Power and Brahman is the Possessor of the power. Power cannot exist without possessor. For Ex: Our seeing power cannot exist without us, if so we can send the power to observe something while we rest at our home.

From the Satvic part of the Subtle elements the five sense organs of knowledge are formed:

Earth – Power of Smell - Nose
Water – Power of Taste - Tongue
Fire – Power of Vision - Eyes
Air – Power of Feel - Skin
Space – Power of Sound - Ears

From the combined satva gunas of the Subtle elements is born the mind. Mind needs the qualities of all the five sense organs as it needs to coordinate with all of them. Mind has four functions which are associated different devatas as below:

Macrocosm

From the Rajasic part of the five elements, the five karmendriyas emerged respectively:

From the collective Rajasic part of the five elements the Panch Pranas (Prana Shakthi) evolved. Similar to mind the energy is required for all the actions and hence emerges from the collective Rajasic part of all the five elements. The prana is one but has five functions as seen earlier.

5 elements with 19 organs make up the 24 tatvams which form the basis of the creation.

From the Tamasic part of the five subtle elements, the gross five elements emerged. This grossification process is as below:

The five elements get divided into two. The top portion remains intact and the other part is divided into 4 parts. The four parts of each compnent go to the unsplit portion of the component. So one half of Space gets one eight of Air, Water, Fire and Earth making it an alloy. This grossifies to the Gross Element of the dominant part: